Word.ws English Dictionary

pushing water uphill

pushing water uphill is the present participle and gerund of push water uphill.

Meaning of push water uphill

Verb

push water uphill (third-person singular simple present pushes water uphill, present participle pushing water uphill, simple past and past participle pushed water uphill)

  1. (idiomatic) To try to achieve a goal despite huge resistance or nearly futile awkwardness, the task being an uphill battle.
    • A Salesman Unaided by the House is Pushing Water Uphill.1917, Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal - Volume 21, Chilton Company, page 161

Questions about pushing water uphill

What is pushing water uphill the present participle and gerund of?
Pushing water uphill is the present participle and gerund of push water uphill.

Words near pushing water uphill in the dictionary

  1. pushing up
  2. pushing up against
  3. pushing up daisies
  4. pushing up on
  5. pushing up the daisies
  6. pushing water uphill
  7. pushing wood
  8. pushing-jack
  9. pushing-jacks
  10. pushing-school
  11. pushing-schools

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pushing water uphill (page history and authors); push water uphill (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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